He loved also to share this joy, so far as it could be done, with others. At the Synod of China with his apparatus he gave several exhibitions that were greatly appreciated. At Wei Hsien he rendered similar services in the high schools, and at Chefoo in the school for the children of missionaries. The Centennial Fourth of July, being quite an exceptional occasion, he celebrated not with ordinary gunpowder, but by setting off a considerable quantity of detonating chemicals. In the early days at Tengchow a home-made electric fly whisk whirled above the dining table, and a little pneumatic fountain playing in a bell glass rendered the room and the meals additionally pleasant to the family and to the guests. Ada writes: But the thing that most of us will remember longest is an illustrated lecture on electricity delivered to the college in Wei Hsien, and afterward to the foreigners there. As we sat in a darkened room in the college watching the long sparks of fire, the twisting circles of many-colored light, half illuminating a tall, white-bearded figure in a long black gown, he seemed to us like some old magician, learned in the black arts, now become bright arts, invoking to his aid his attendant spirits. Nor was the enchantment diminished when afterward, more wonderful than a palmister, he showed us by the x-rays the bones of our hands. A few weeks later one of the ladies of the compound gave an evening entertainment in which each one in the station was hit off in some bright way, and we were to guess the name. One number of the programme was this: A black-robed figure with cotton beard appeared, leading a youth whom he seated in a chair. Then the venerable personage proceeds to examine the head of the stripling with a stereoscope covered with black cloth, supposed to be a fluoroscope, while an alarm clock in a tin pail near by supplies the crackling of electricity. He gives a careful examination, shakes his head, and pronounces the verdict in one word, “Empty.” In explanation of the tableau it only needs to be said that between the exhibition and the entertainment Dr. Mateer had given the young men of the station their examination in the language. XIII THE MANDARIN VERSION “I am mortgaged to the Bible revision work.... It cost me a great effort to engage in it, but it will probably be the most important work of my life.”—LETTER TO SECRETARY BROWN, June 13, 1896.